


peace between wars; calm in a storm

by blackstarenjoyer



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, royal suki au, secret kyoshi warrior suki
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27345007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackstarenjoyer/pseuds/blackstarenjoyer
Summary: kyoshi island princess suki has been secretly training to be a kyoshi warrior at nights, the only time where royal duties don’t follow her. katara journeys to the humble kyoshi island in response to an offer from the royal family.
Relationships: Katara & Suki (Avatar), Katara/Suki (Avatar)
Kudos: 4





	peace between wars; calm in a storm

**Author's Note:**

> suki intro chapter! love writing for her she feels like a ghibli movie

the bruises on her pale arms stick out like an ugly dirt hill in a flower field, grossly green in comparison to her pale skin. everyone had always swore that her skin was as beautiful as that of some untouchable porcelain doll that your distant relatives put on shelves, but they had always been disappointed at her bruises. it made her cheeks burn when someone berated her for misusing her very own skin , whether in shame or in anger, she doesn’t know. 

“get up, idiot,”

a voice came from above, along with a soft kick to suki’s legs as they were bent at the knees while she laid on her back. she groans, limbs aching. there are tight, black braces on her knees and elbows, but she has a feeling there will still be scuffs on her joints when she wakes up tomorrow, surely still aching like a child with growing pains. she grabs as much of her face as she can with her little hand as her other hand pushes her up from the ground, her head stings with a warning of upcoming migraines.

and she’s on her feet again, toes only touching the floor lightly as she hops from point to point like she sees the older kyoshi warriors do when they’re ready to fight. she doesn’t really know what good it does, but she guesses it makes her look more intimidating. or at least, she hopes. maybe the frantic hopping is what’s making her instructor look at her like she had grown a head. 

“calm down, little fighter. we’re done for tonight. have you even looked outside?”

she hadn’t. it seems like it’s been hours, just being bested in practice combat and falling over onto these hard tatami floors. suki’s head turns to look out the open window, crisp breeze blowing her hair softly behind her own neck. outside the window is the vast, beautifully living countryside of kyoshi island, with the moon reflecting off the very tops of the grassy fields, wet with the fresh dew of the early, early morning.

the foliage danced with the breeze, forever in a beautiful waltz just for suki to see on training nights. she realizes, morning dew stares at her like a reminder. 

“.... it’s morning- oh!”

she says quickly. she’d stayed here training for much too long. frantic hands try messily unwrapping her knee brace while hopping on one foot, suki is rambling. a broad laugh booms from her instructor, covering her mouth. 

“keep it together, girl. you have time.”

suki can hear the smile in her words, confused at her lack of panic, or at least worry. she almost falls over trying to unwrap her knee guards. the sturdy hands of the older warrior keep her up, and begins to unwrap her arm guards.

“i bet the sun’ll be up in an hour, what am i gonna do about mom and dad? ugh, i should have been paying attention,”

“you’ll be fine. if you’ve shown me anything through our training, it’s that you can run pretty fast, even if it is from a gigantic elephant koi.”

suki frowns. she wasn’t running, she was just... playing tag with it. she wouldn’t run from some fish.

“hey, don’t be down. you ran pretty fast, is what i’m trying to say.”

the instructor finishes untying suki’s wraps as she stops teasing her for being scared of the elephant koi on that day by the beach. suki stands for a moment, thinking.

“what are you waiting for, scaredy-cat? go!”

her shoulders rise, hair lifted in the wind as her cheeks heat in panic and the ends of her lips move outwards to show her teeth in an odd frown-smile. she grabs her bag, running out the door to the dojo and waving goodbye. she doesn’t even have shoes on as she runs through the dirt pathways that linked everything on kyoshi island together. the pathways slope down on both sides, leading to fields of wheat and crop that families harvest throughout daytime. her little feet touch the dirt and propel dust backwards as she runs as fast as her legs can possibly take her with all of her training weapons in a thin bag tucked to her chest.

the dirt ground makeshift road is about as thick as two farm carts, with indentions from the thick, wooden wheels set in. the carts often transfer the foliage and crops grown in these fields, mostly things like wheat and fruit. the carts smell like flowers whenever she sees them, but she doesn’t ever see flowers being grown in the field. her eyes finally find her house, larger than those of the other islanders due to her fathers status as chief. she smiles as she continues to run, wind getting in her mouth and making her comfortably cold. short, brown hair is cold as it finally touches suki’s neck for the first time since she began running. she shivers, mouth seeping open lengthwise while her feet slowly graduate from a spring to a run, and from a run to a jog. 

suki’s dirt-covered feet tiptoe onto the wooden porch of her house. she gently opens the front door, walking as lightly as she possibly could throughout the cold open-room. suki’s family leaves the windows open through the night, making the wooden floors shockingly chilly as she tries to sneak over them. closing the door to her room, she takes off her training gear, and uses her dirty shorts to wipe off her dirty feet. sliding on the green silk robe that her mother insists she wear for ‘formality’, she inspects herself in the mirror. bruises cover her skinny limbs, some much worse than others. other than a couple scrapes, there’s nothing to be noticed without careful inspection. 

the window that acts as a wall in suki’s room is likely the only one fully closed in the entire house. suki doesn’t really like when her parents get into her room anyway. with them, it’s always something about an event she needs to be present at, a ceremony she needs to prepare for. sometimes they just come to pester her because of the dirt that always mysteriously appears on the floors in the dark of night. she pretends that she doesn’t know where it comes from, or that maybe a baby badgermole or elephant rat had snuck in through those terrible windows that they refuse to close. they would much rather let themselves believe it was a pest and not the clean, royal daughter they had raised. 

it’s always suki, though. she doubts any fauna would even want to invade her house, there’s nothing good to chew on or steal; it’s just wood and empty space. for an island of earthbenders, there’s an abundance of unbendable wood in the architecture. it doesn’t matter in regards to her house, though, as the royal family are all non-benders. silly little non-bender family in a world of strong, bending people. sometimes it makes suki ashamed, to not have bending and live among the ranks of all of these gorgeous, talented benders. she thinks of the kyoshi warriors. she’s been with them for years, five or six maybe, and she still isn’t as good as all of the older warriors; she’s a princess among fighters. 

yet she still lay her head to bed every night, just like they do. and she closes her eyes, just as she sees the sun rise over the field outside.


End file.
